In a world full of hostility and loss of faith surrounded by war and technological developments, he modernist era of literature developments, the modernists era of literature arose. The sinking of the Titanic symbolized the falling of the Great Britain empire and newly invented standardized time allowed war to become even deadlier than before due to the ability to organize attacks. Due to this new world full of bloodshed and new mechanical inventions, the world was falling further and further away from God. William Butler Years expresses his sudden collapse of society in his poem "The Second Coming", first composed in January of 1919. The hopelessness of mankind is addressed by Keats' statement that man cannot save us, God cannot save us,...show more content... Society has strayed so far away from God that we cannot be guided back home. Yeats begins the poem with the first two lines painting an image of society falling apart and breaking down, one that O'Brien refers to as a "cultural breakdown."He says, "The falcon represents those forces that function productively only when disciplined." In order to maintain structure and to prevent the gyre from widening further, our society needs discipline, otherwise our structure, our faith, or very nature as human beings deteriorates. At this time in our society, our discipline in our faith is gone. Our discipline in our morals and ethics is gone.
Lines 3–6 illustrate society's inability to hold together without discipline. Because the falcon can no longer hear the falconer to find its way back home, "things fall apart" – the result of society straying from God. With everything falling apart, the need for someone or something to save society becomes prominent. Since society has strayed away from God, the next solution is man as a savior, but with the new age of war and machinery, mankind has lost their ability to save the world. O'Brien says, "Everything that makes life valuable is being drenched in blood. 'The ceremony of innocence' refers no to one particular ceremony but is intended to suggest the grace and order of civilized society. Moreover, there is nobody to fight 'the blood–dimmed tide." Soldiers are
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Second Coming Tone
The second coming literary analysis essay William Butler Yeats wrote "The Second Coming" after World War 1 ended, in a time when the image of society was catastrophic. Yeats was deeply affected by these horrors caused by the war. Yeats predicts this image of a catastrophic society due to war will reappear in the near future. In "The Second Coming", William B. Yeats uses a variety of literary devices to portray his idea of what the downfall of society will look like. Throughout the poem, Yeats uses diction to illustrate a mood for the reader. Diction is the author's word choice in their writing which can affect the mood of the piece. In nearly every line of the poem, a word that creates a sorrowful and gloomy mood is apparent. For example, three words that may stand out the most to readers are, blood–dimmed, drowned, and shadows. By using the word "blood–dimmed" the author creates a scary connotation. Blood is often associated with death and in this case war. Dimmed creates imagery for the reader and helps them to visualize a setting that is vague. The reader cannot see things clearly however they can almost feel the chilling mood of their surroundings. The placement of the word drowned next to Blood–dimmed can cause the reader to interpret it in many different ways. One, for example, would...show more content...
In The Second Coming, by William Butler Yeats, Yeats explains the destruction of war caused by man and his inability to hear god because his own ideas are clouding his judgement. The poem describes Yeats's prediction of a second world war caused by the wrongdoings of man through the biblical allusion of the second coming. Yeat's also uses diction and symbolism to emphasize a gloomy and depressing setting. However, the destruction of man is not only caused by the actions of humans, it is often caused by their lack of
The poem "The Second Coming" was written about the aftermath of World War One, which includes the enforcement of the European culture of Christianity and Catholicism on other races of the world. The message behind this poem if to the premise to the theme of the novel "Things Fall Apart." Many of the lines that are indicated within the poem reflect the incidents of this novel, but mostly, the title that's used is a line from the poem, it is equivalent to the outcome of the instilling of ideas of what had happened to the Nigeria tribes.
The poem is based on the changes of the war, it also shows that it's impossible to stop any changes from happening in the future. As for the novel when the white men settled in the tribes of Nigeria, there wasn't any way to stop the changes of their presence from happening any further than it did. The communities of Nigeria fell apart due to the invasion of the white men imposing their religion...show more content... This also reveals that his people lost their beliefs when the Europeans entered their environment that corrupted their world. This changed their beliefs of the only world that they knew before the religion of Christianity came about. Because of the European assimilating these people to their religion of Christianity it broke the connection that the tribe had, and the village belief systems were slowly broken.
However, with Okonkwo's devastating life experiences among his people and himself, it certainly enforces the last line of Yeat's poem "slouches towards Bethlehem to be born." This reinforcement of this specific religion brought much terror among the Nigerian tribes, but it mostly affected Okonkwo's state of mind. The outcome of this led to Okonkwo to take his own life in madness of his people converting to Catholicism and
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